Golden end to season, has Vachon looking forward to 2013

After a long competition season, Denis Vachon ended up exactly where he hopes to spend a lot of time next year.

In a field that included three of the top five finishers from the world championships, Vachon took the gold medal at the Pan Am Trampoline and Tumbling Championships in Queretaro, Mexico. The Burlington B.G.'s trampolinist posted the top scores on both of his passes in the final to win the double mini trampoline competition with a total score of 73.800, almost two points better than silver medallist Lucas Adorno of Argentina.

“My last pass was probably my best this year,” Vachon said. “It had the highest execution (marks) of the meet. It’s great knowing I could deliver a very strong routine when it mattered most.”

That will certainly give Vachon an edge as he prepares for 2013, a season that will include the sports’ two biggest competitions. The World Games — the Olympics for non-Olympic sports — will be held in Colombia in July and the world championships will take place in Bulgaria in November.

The good news for Vachon is that he won the gold at the Pan Ams without performing his most difficult passes. He also overcame a hurdle, performing the pass that he stumbled on at the 2011 world championships, dropping him to fifth, just seven-tenths of a point out of the medals.

Looking back at 2012, Vachon said he may have packed too many competitions into this season, but with things going well, he added more competitions later in the year when most are training or enjoying an off-season.

“You look at this year and I never stopped,” he said. “I went from qualifiers (in January) to nationals, to Portugal (an international meet in September where he won a silver medal), and then I was on such a high, I wanted to keep going.”

That could have cost the 28-year-old at the Pan Ams. After a long season and travel problems that had him arriving a day late in Mexico, Vachon said he was feeling the effects.

The day before the meet began, an awkward landing that could have produced a serious injury convinced him to scale back his passes. Vachon said fatigue played a factor in the decision.

Even without his most difficult passes, Vachon finished first in the preliminaries.

“I was very happy with day one,” he said. “It felt very powerful. The landing was still not where I wanted it to be but everything in the air felt clean and solid.”

It also gave him a boost of confidence heading into the second day, where he again delivered the top scores.

Vachon, a silver medalist at the 2007 worlds, said this season was valuable in that it will help him plan out his training and competition schedule, knowing at what points in the year he’ll need to take a break.

“We’ll probably scale things back and look at unveiling the full program in April or May,” he said. “My goal is to win both (World Games and world championships) and if I plan properly, I can do it.”